Windows® 7 Touch Screen

Microsoft upcoming Windows 7 operating system will have a unique touch-screen interface with a simple set of touch gestures that work in several existing applications.

The OS has an improved high dpi support, and updated taskbar and windows arranging features, which makes it easier to use with touch.

The taskbar buttons and thumbnails are properly sized for pressing with fingers, and specific behaviors are tuned for touch input. Windows 7 has a refined top browsing and media activities providing an optimized touch experience.

Internet Explorer 8 offers support for the key touch gestures (scrolling, back, forward, zoom) apart from an enhanced address bar that opens by dragging down, and additional spacing in favorites and history lists when opened with touch for easy selection.

For instance, the Jump Lists can be approached with an easy drag up from the taskbar, and when launched with touch, the shortcuts in the Jump Lists are drawn with additional vertical spacing to make them smother to select.

Aero Peek has been customized to work with touch, with the show desktop button twice as wide and instead of hovering - which you will not be able to do with touch - a press-and-hold on the button activates Aero Peek.

Aero Snap makes it easy for you to just drag a window to a screen edge for sizing and positioning windows. Moreover, this was customized with special touch thresholds to save you from dragging to the absolute edge of the screen - a better balance for touch function.

The transport controls (play, pause, etc) in Windows Media Player come with larger clickable areas, making them easier to touch.

An optimized on-screen keyboard provides glow key feedback - visible when your finger covers the letter - and multitouch support for natural typing behavior and key combinations. The keyboard is designed for quick usage, like entering a URL.

In a nutshell, the Windows Touch features work together to deliver an enhanced end-to-end touch experience. For example, , Internet Explorer 8 has been designed for a seamless touch browsing experience, including the panning, zooming, URL entry, and many more interface enhancements. This necessitates the presence of a multi-touch digitizer for all the new touch features.